Northwest Voices | Letters to the Editor

Welcome to The Seattle Times' online letters to the editor, a sampling of readers' opinions. Join the conversation by commenting on these letters or send your own letter of up to 200 words letters@seattletimes.com.

U.S. ambassador killed in Libya, anti-U.S. violence spreads

In this photo posted on the U.S. Embassy Tripoli Facebook page on Aug. 27, 2012, U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, left, walks with an unidentified translator during a tour of Assaraya al-Hamra, or the Red Castle in Tripoli, Libya. Libyan officials say the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans have been killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi by protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Worthy of a tabloid

I found the photo of slain U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens to be an unfortunate departure from The Times’ customary good judgment. We all know what happened; it was not necessary to see a photo of his last moments as his body was being carried out.

Even if The Times did not know at the time the photo went to press that he had a sister living in Seattle — who does not deserve to ever see that photo, much less in her hometown newspaper — no one should have to see their loved one’s gruesome death splashed across the page like that. It was more worthy of The National Enquirer than of a Pulitzer-prize-winning paper like The Times.